Apollo 13 is a movie based on ... free essay sample

Apollo 13 is a movie based on the Apollo aircraft crisis on April 13, 1970. In 1970, NASA launched the Apollo 13 mission, which was to take a crew of astronauts to the moon. On the way to the moon, one of the liquid oxygen tanks exploded, and the other one began leaking. The space craft had two major problems there wasnt enough air, and there wasnt enough electricity to get the men home. The two main characters represent how a leadership enables a team to be able to survive when unpredictable events occur on a regular basis. They portray the different styles of leadership that can be carried out and how they affect a team and their outcomes. They show how to maintain leadership and professional relationships in situations in unfavorable conditions. Eugene Kranz was the leader responsible for leading the effort to get these astronauts home. Kranz battled against pessimism. Ground crew members warned were losing it, were going down and we are at a point of losing everybody and everything. We will write a custom essay sample on Apollo 13 is a movie based on or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Kranz quickly and firmly put an end to the pessimism. He exhorted his team lets everybody keep cool, lets solve the problem. He was clear in his expectation that we dont concede failure and we will never surrender. Optimists define bad things that happen to them in terms of causes which are temporary, specific, and changeable. Pessimists define the bad things that happen to them in terms of causes which are permanent, pervasive, and personal. Kranz also listened to the opinions of the rest of his team and encouraged different viewpoints. However, time was a scarce commodity and there was no time to hesitate and not act. Once the team realized they were in the middle of a crisis, Kranz quickly reconfigured the organization to focus on the problem. He pulled one flight control team out of its normal role to work exclusively on finding solutions. He moved staff from team to team to bring in the specific knowledge, skills and experience he needed. Once in place, Kranz provided the team direction and then got out of the way to let them work. As Kranz explained My job was basically to orchestrate all the players, recognize the problems, point people in the direction if we had more than one way to do a job, get the players to bring their stuff in, listen to them, and send them back. In the end, Apollo 13 and its crew splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean. Kranzs strong leadership proved to be the key factor in the missions safe conclusion. As Kranz later said Firmness at the helm was the only thing that was going to get us through. The story of Kranz, his team on the ground and the astronauts in the spacecraft is told in Tom Hanks movie Apollo 13. The movie is a great study in how to lead in a crisis. The famous line from the movie failure is not an option sums up how Engene Kranz approached his crisis.